From Mount Nebo, a mammoth exclamation point on the south end near Nephi, to the craggy Sheep Rock Point at Soda Springs, Idaho, on the north, the rugged Wasatch Mountains span a 220-mile distance.
Most people think the Wasatch range only runs from Provo to Ogden, but it is actually the longest and most prominent in the state. Although the Wasatch is Utah's fifth-tallest range, it is significant because it creates a watershed and climate that helps sustain about 90 percent of the state's population. The mountains also sustain most of Utah's ski resorts.
The southern edge of the range ends at Nephi's Mount Nebo — the king of the Wasatch at 11,928 feet — where U-132 heads up Salt Creek Canyon to Fountain Green. The San Pitch Mountains, sporting an entirely different composition of rocks, begin here and run southward.
"Cold, austere, a triple pyramid of limestone, Mount Nebo rises under the central Utah sky, the final exclamation point in stone of the Wasatch Mountains," was how Harrison R. Merrill, a Deseret News reporter, described it on July 4, 1930, after hiking to its summit.
In southern Idaho, Soda Point or "Sheep Rock," a craggy point with basalt cliffs, is the abrupt north end to the Wasatch. Here the range is at its shortest — 8,918 feet. Located about four miles north of Grace, Idaho, it is also the site where the Bear River does a 180-degree turn, looping around Soda Point into the Gem Valley to head toward the Great Salt Lake.
John C. Fremont, early explorer, wrote in his diary on Aug. 26, 1843:
"In sweeping around the point of the mountain which runs down into the bend, the river here passes between perpendicular walls of basalt which always affix the attention, from the regular form in which it occurs, and its perfect distinctness from the surrounding rocks among which it has been placed. The mountain is rugged and steep, and, by our measurement, 1,400 feet above the river directly opposite the place of our halt, is called Sheep Rock, probably because a flock of the common mountain sheep had been seen on the craggy point."
J. Goldsborough Bruff, an early Oregon Trail traveler (this trail passes near Sheep Rock) said in his diary on Aug. 19, 1849:
"This remarkable cliff is surmounted by a high round hill, studded with pines & vedure â height 1,000 feet . . . Deep below, within these basaltic walls, the clear cold waters of the (Bear) river rush and roar, hastening to mingle with the Salts of the Great Salt Lake, some 90 odd miles . . . A broken place in the bank, filled with detritus, permitted us, by a troublesome path, to reach the stream and dip up water."
However, the Bear River didn't always loop around Sheep Rock. Until some 28,000 years ago, in the early days of Lake Bonneville, the river flowed northwest through Portneuf Canyon toward Lava Hot Springs and into the Snake River. Then, lava eruptions near Sheep Rock blocked that path and the river curved south toward Utah.
This additional water from the Bear River helped Lake Bonneville overflow at Red Rock Pass into the Snake River. A dramatic change in climate then shrunk Lake Bonneville into today's Great Salt Lake.
Today, Soda Point is a majestic scenic wonder. Darrel VandeWeg, geologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Soda Springs, said the stunning view at the north end of the Wasatch is all due to the past volcanic activity in the Gem Valley; lava rock is scattered throughout.
"It's amazing," he said.
Still, many residents in southern Idaho — both those around Bear Lake on the east and those in Grace on the west — call these mountains the "Bear River Mountains," unaware they are actually part the Wasatch.
In fact, the Wellsville Mountains (reputed to be the world's steepest) and the Portneuf Mountains on west side of the Gem Valley, are segments of the Wasatch, too.
"The Wasatch Range actually splits," VandeWeg said. The westernmost finger is the Wellsville, while the main portion of the range heads into Cache Valley. The mountains east of Bear Lake are also the Wasatch, though part of another split.
"Geographers like to put different names on it," he said, though geologically it's all the Wasatch Range. "It is confusing. Geographic names evolve differently than geologic names."
Paul Jewell, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah, agrees that the confusion in these sub-names comes from geography and mapmaking, not geology. The Wellsvilles are definitely a sub-range of the Wasatch.
Jewell said the current scientific belief is the mountains were formed some 15 million years ago from the uplift created at the junction of tectonic plates that float on the earth's surface.
Jewell said the Wasatch Mountains are still growing a fraction of a millimeter each year. However, they may not actually be getting any taller because of erosion.
The highest Wasatch Point in Cache County Is Naomi Peak at 9,979. In Box Elder and Weber counties, Willard Peak is tallest at 9,763. In Davis County, highest summit in the Wasatch is Thurston Peak (9,706) and the western American Fork Twin Peaks above Snowbird is Salt Lake's loftiest point at 11,489 feet.
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com